Smart Business Magazine, December 2017

SMART BUSINESS MARK SCOTT EDITORS NOTE Time for a big change Robots and Pencils wants to do more than just transform the app world 6 Smart Business Cleveland December 2017 Smart Business Cleveland 835 Sharon Drive Suite 200 Cleveland OH 44145 O 8009884726 F 4402507001 Smart Business Magazine Events PUBLISHER CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Dustin S Klein GENERAL MANAGER John Lotenero VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES Katie Janoch Janet K Valore VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Somer Karim ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS David Brodowski Jennifer Wafalosky SENIOR EDITOR April Grasso SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mark Scott ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jayne Gest ASSOCIATE EDITOR DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER Adam Burroughs PRODUCTION MANAGER Mary Kay Bukowski CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jim Mericsko PROJECT MANAGER EVENTS Danielle Catteau SALES MANAGER EVENTS Meredith Rankin SALES EXECUTIVE EVENTS Lisa Walker AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Tammy Frank Smart Business Magazine Events are a division of Smart Business Network Inc PRESIDENT CEO Fred Koury MANAGING PARTNER CONVERO Lee Koury MANAGING PARTNER CONVERO Michael Marzec CONTROLLER Kathy Deutsch EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Jill Brown ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE ACCOUNTS PAYABLE Marilyn Homolak Smart Business Magazines Akron Canton Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus Florida Houston Los Angeles Northern California Orange County Philadelphia Pittsburgh St Louis specifically for the talent People want to be human and to have stories and meaning behind everything they do The company was founded in Alberta Canada where Sikorsky was born and raised In January it merged with Cleveland based Kinetiq Digital to expand both its territorial reach and its capabilities Northeast Ohio operations have moved from Beachwood to downtown Cleveland and Jamie Reid communications director at Robots and Pencils says the team is excited about the future Were focused on being a digital innovation partner for businesses to help them leverage mobile and frontier technologies to transform their companies Reid says Sikorsky has an impressive résumé He regularly speaks about innovation business strategy and mobile technology all over North America at such places as Harvard Business School Stanford University Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University In 2013 he was chosen as an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year award winner Its all centered on the philosophy of merging creative talent with groundbreaking innovation Why did Steve Jobs build atriums in the center of his office space to pull people together he says He wanted different cultures to hang out This is not a new idea Still he says it hasnt been an easy road to achieve success In any strong culture by definition its going to be deeply compelling and deeply repelling if its strong he says You cant be deeply compelling and not be deeply repelling Thus far those who are compelled outnumber those who are repelled and the company continues to grow There are a bunch of people who wanted what we were offering he says M ichael J Sikorsky set out to create a company that would not only revolutionize the way people look at mobile technology but how they look at the structure of any business Sikorsky contends that even in these times when workplace culture has been granted greater importance business leaders too often take an impersonal approach to hiring So in 2009 he created Robots and Pencils Its so easy for a business owner to tick box your way through talent says Sikorsky co founder and CEO at the digital innovation agency We start to think of talent as these commodities and we think there is this pool of talent you can just take from and plug into any one of these tick boxes My belief is that the better way to hire is to design a company MARK SCOTT Senior Associate Editor Smart Business Cleveland 440 250 7016 mscott@ sbnonline com www sbnonline com

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